Chapter 9

1 Ezra mourneth for the affinity of the people with strangers. 5 He prayeth unto God with confession of sins.

1. When these things were done. Some considerable time must have elapsed since Ezra’s arrival at Jerusalem. He had reached the city on the first day of the 5th month (ch. 7:9), rested 3 days (ch. 8:32), and on the 4th day of the same month had transferred the treasure to the Temple authorities. It was not till the 17th day of the 9th month that the matter of the mixed marriages was taken in hand (ch. 10:8, 9). We cannot suppose that action was long delayed after the matter came to Ezra’s attention.

The princes. It is remarkable that complaint on a matter of religious transgression came from the secular, not from the ecclesiastical, authorities of the city. The reason for this unusual situation is the fact that the religious dignitaries of the nation not only condoned the practice but were also guilty (v. 2). Since close relatives of Jeshua, the former high priest, had married foreign wives it is not strange to find that a movement for reform in this matter did not originate with the priests. When the religious leaders themselves were implicated it was understandable that the inferior orders should remain silent. By God’s good providence, however, it often happens that when things have come to such a pass, and the ministers are corrupt, lay people are raised up to take the initiative to secure religious reform.

According to their abominations. The complaint does not claim that the Jews had already adopted the idolatrous practices of the pagans about them, but that they were associating with these heathen neighbors. The foreign wives of these backslidden Jews had undoubtedly introduced idolatrous rites into their homes.

The Canaanites. Mention of eight nations of antiquity with whom admixture had taken place does not necessarily mean that wives had actually been taken from each of the eight groups listed. It is possible that the Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, and Amorites no longer even existed as distinct ethnic groups. The princes had in mind the prohibitions of the Pentateuch such as that of Deut. 7:1–4, where these nations are enumerated, and drew Ezra’s attention to the fact that these prohibitions had been violated.

2. The holy seed. Compare Isa. 6:13. However much the people of Israel polluted themselves by transgression, they were still His people, by prophetic announcement and by His grace, since the time of their rejection had not yet arrived. The Jews had been ordained “a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation” (Ex. 19:6), “separated … from all the people that are upon the face of the earth” (Ex. 33:16), a “peculiar people,” that is, God’s own (see on 1 Peter 2:9).

Chief in this trespass. The leaders were the chief offenders (ch. 10:18). A similar, or even more serious, defection of the leading classes took place in Nehemiah’s time (Neh. 6:17, 18; 13:4, 28).

3. I rent my garment. Rending the clothes was a common Oriental mode of expressing grief (see Gen. 37:29, 34; 1 Sam. 4:12; 2 Sam. 1:2; 2 Kings 18:37; Job 1:20; 2:11, 12; Matt. 26:65). In Babylon, whence Ezra came, marriages with pagans had probably not yet become customary. Ezra was therefore shocked when he learned the extent to which this sin had made inroads among the returned exiles. He expressed his feelings in typical Oriental fashion, by first rending both his outer and his inner garments, then tearing his hair and beard, and finally by sitting down astonished, motionless and speechless, until the time of the evening sacrifice. Such a manifestation of horror and amazement was well calculated to impress those whose spiritual leader he had become.

Plucked off the hair. This practice is not mentioned elsewhere in Scripture, though it is found in the Apocrypha (Apocryphal Esther 14:2; etc.).

Astonied. Compare Dan. 4:19; 8:27, where the same word is used in the same sense.

4. Trembled. Not so much a reference to God-fearing persons as such (see Isa. 66:2), but to all who were alarmed at the transgression of the commands of God (Ezra 10:3) and the threats of the law against transgressors (Deut. 7:4).

The evening sacrifice. As morning is the time for business in the East, we may assume that the princes had visited Ezra early in the day, certainly before noon. The evening sacrifice was offered approximately at three o’clock in the afternoon (see Josephus Antiquities xiv. 4. 3; see also on Ex. 12:6).

5. I arose up. The time of sacrifice was also the appointed time for prayer, especially for a prayer in which a confession of sin was foremost or one of concern to the nation as a whole. Ezra probably felt that supplications for forgiveness would be most appropriate at the time when the sacrifice, which represented confession and forgiveness, was being offered.

Rent my garment. This second rending of his garments was not only a renewed indication of the depth of sorrow he felt, but also no doubt had the purpose of impressing the people who “were assembled” unto him (v. 4) with the seriousness of the situation, and to stir them up to repentance.

6. I am ashamed. Jeremiah had complained that in his days those who “committed abomination … were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush” (Jer. 6:15; 8:12). Ezra, possibly with these words in his thoughts, assures God in his prayer that he is deeply moved with shame for the sins of his people.

8. A nail. The nail, or peg, here mentioned has been taken by some commentators—Luther, Keil, and others—to be a nail in the wall (see Isa. 22:23, 25) on which utensils could be hung. The meaning would be that the people of God were sustained by this nail. Others have seen in it the tent peg, and thus symbolic of a sure abode.

9. The kings of Persia. While Ezra deplored the spiritual condition of the people, he is nevertheless grateful for the privileges granted by the Persian kings. Practically every monarch thus far had shown favor to the Jews. Cyrus had granted the first permit to return and build the Temple (Ezra 1), Cambyses had favored the Jews of Egypt, as we know from the Elephantine papyri, Darius I had renewed the decree of Cyrus (Ezra 6), Xerxes had granted unprecedented privileges to the Jews throughout the empire (Esther 8–10), and Artaxerxes I had now made new and far-reaching grants (Ezra 7). The only exception had been the false Smerdis, who actively hindered the Jews during the few months of his reign.

Set up the house. See on chs. 6:14; 7:27.

To give us a wall. It has already been pointed out in the Additional Note on ch. 7 that this statement does not necessarily mean that Ezra found a completed wall upon his arrival at Jerusalem. He refers to the several grants made by the Persian kings, particularly to permission to rebuild the wall. Ezra, who had been invested with authority to work on the wall, could therefore rightly say that God had extended mercy to them “in the sight of the kings of Persia, … to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.” Possibly, as some think, the “wall” is figurative and denotes protection (see Zech. 2:5).

11. The land. The quotation from “the prophets” does not appear elsewhere in the OT, and must therefore either be from a noncanonical, but inspired, writer, or a free quotation giving the consensus of prophetic teaching on the subject. The first part of the quotation refers to the Mosaic age (see Deut. 7:1–3). The author of the book of Kings makes similar references to “the prophets” (2 Kings 17:23; 21:10; 24:2). The purpose of such references is to represent the truth in question as one frequently mentioned (see on Matt. 2:23).

It is true that elsewhere in Scripture (except for Deut. 7:1–3) there is no specific prohibition of marriages with Canaanites as such, though in the remarks made in Judges 3:6 (in the Hebrew Bible Judges is counted among the “Former Prophets,” see Vol. I, p. 37) such marriages are reproved as occasioning the seduction of Israelites to idolatry. Also, in the prophetic descriptions of the whoredoms of Israel with the various local Baals, and in the general condemnations of apostasy, the transgression of this prohibition is implicitly included. This certainly justifies the general statement that God had forbidden the Israelites to contract such marriages. It is therefore evident that these words of Ezra do not support the argument of critical scholars that Deuteronomy had a number of “prophet” authors.

Filthiness. Not literal, of the body, but figurative, of the moral and religious filthiness of the nations of Canaan. On the Canaanite religion see Vol. II, pp. 38–41.

12. Give not your daughters. This prohibition is worded after Deut. 7:3. The addition, “nor seek their peace,” etc., is taken almost verbally from Deut. 23:6, in reference to the Ammonites and Moabites. “That ye may be strong” recalls Deut. 11:8, and the promise, “eat the good of the land,” suggests Isa. 1:19. The words “and leave it for an inheritance” embody the idea found in several Biblical passages (Deut. 11:9; Prov. 10:27; Eze. 37:25).

14. Break thy commandments. Ezra views the sin in which he found his people to have fallen as having “grown up unto the heavens” (v. 6). Their sin was tantamount to a complete forsaking of God’s commandments, and in this condition they “cannot stand” before God (v. 15). Ezra’s public confession on behalf of his people (see Dan. 9:5–16) is based partly on the nature of the sin itself, and partly on the fact that they had revealed base ingratitude in turning from God so soon after He had forgiven their sins that sent them into captivity and had showered favor after favor upon them as they returned to Palestine. To fall again into the same transgression was, in Ezra’s estimation, unpardonable, and the punishment must certainly be nothing less than irretrievable destruction of the nation.

15. Thou art righteous. On behalf of his people, Ezra acknowledges the holiness of God in requiring them to comply with the provisions of His law. In contrast to His righteousness, their sinfulness stands forth in all its heinousness.

Ellen G. White comments

1–15PK 619–621

1     1T 279

1, 2 PK 619

3–6PK 620

5     GW 178; PK 48

7–15PK 621

13–151T 279